SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Linfield University graduate student Keaton Wood broke a program record in the men's decathlon on Friday, setting a new standard that had long eluded the Lake Oswego native.
 
Wood scored a Division III-leading 7,254 points at the Jim Klein Multi-Events, surpassing the 12-year-old mark of 7,125 points held by recent Linfield Athletics Hall of Fame inductee Josh Lovell. He placed second overall behind Rostam Turner's 7,269 points. Turner, representing the Okanagan Athletics Track Club, was competing for a spot on the Canadian National Team.
 
Coming into the meet, Wood's highest decathlon point total was 6,612 points. Achieving new personal bests in the 110-meter hurdles (14.73 seconds), 100 dash (11.01), 400 dash (49.07), high jump (6 feet, 5 inches, and the 1,500 run (4:38.32), Wood was able to far surpass his previous best marks.
 
Wildcats coach Travis Olson expressed praise and admiration for Wood following the milestone performance.
 
"I am very fortunate to have an athlete on my team like Keaton," he said. "His journey has had a lot of major setbacks and for him to finish like he did just shows the kind of character he has. I couldn't be more proud of him.
 
"He is in a place now where he feels very confident with what he is doing. It was a lot of fun to watch it come out down at Westmont. He is looking forward to building off of this as we head into the rest of the season."
 
Not to be overlooked, Linfield senior Ronan Krutzikowsky scored 5,838 points to place fifth in a field of 18 competitors.
 
Krutzikowsky tied for first place in the pole vault (14-5) and won the 1,500 run outright (4:37.70).
 
"Ronan had a solid decathlon and competed extremely well," said Olson. "We had a few events that didn't go quite as expected, which is normal for a decathlete, but he really bounced back and put together the second-highest score of his career."
 
On the women's side, Wildcats sophomore Siera Crawford competed in her first heptathlon and finished 21st among 23 entries. She scored 3,241 points.
 
"This was a great experience for Siera," said Olson. "She learned a lot and gave her best effort. We even found a few more events that she will work on along with her normal events. I am proud with how she competed."
 
NEXT
Linfield hosts the Jenn Boyman Memorial Invitational Saturday at Maxwell Field.